July 20: Lesley Gore

Lesley Gore (Lesley Sue Goldstein) had her second big hit single, “Judy’s Turn to Cry,” released on this day in 1963. Gore was herself a high school junior when “It’s My Party” became a Number One hit, produced by Quincy Jones and selling over a million copies. The song was written by Wally Gold, John Gluck, and Herb Weiner, and told the story of “Johnny” betraying the singer by taking up with “Judy” at a teenage party. In “Judy’s Turn to Cry,” the sequel, a fickle Johnny returns to his broken-hearted girlfriend. Gore also had a hit with “You Don’t Own Me,” a proto-feminist song of resistance to a controlling boyfriend. After a string of successful singles, however, Gore was made musically obsolete by the Beatles and psychedelic rock and was dropped by Mercury Records in 1969. She endured as a singer and occasional television actress during the subsequent decades, and released an album of new material, Ever Since, in 2005 — at which time this great storyteller about heterosexual puppy love also came out as a lesbian.

“I think the record industry, by and large what’s left in it, is still totally homophobic. I think it’s much less so in the film industry now, but the record industry, it’s always been a man’s world.” —Lesley Gore